Cancer
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When I was in college I was in a very small acting group. There were just 5 of us traveling around preforming skits for churches and youth rallies all over the North East. We became very close doing that. We would stay in peoples homes and sometimes the accommodations were better than others. One time we three women stayed at a home that didn’t have a bed or even a couch to offer us. They had assumed that we would come with our own bedding but we didn’t. They had 2 sleeping bags for the 3 of us to share. It was not a warm night. We 3 zipped those sleeping bags together and crawled in and slept like that. We knew that one of us was grouchy in the mornings so she got the middle so that we wouldn’t disturb her when we got up. We lived in each others pockets that year and it was a great experience. We aren’t nearly so close all these years later each living in different states (other than the 2 who got married to each other). But when you have lived like that there is a bond that transcends the time and space.
About 6 years ago I got an e-mail from one of the male members of that group asking for prayers. He had been diagnosed with cancer. It should be a pretty easy one to treat but still treatment wouldn’t be fun. We prayed for him and were hopeful that a positive outcome was right around the corner. He died of that cancer within 2 years. Today I learned that my friend, the sleeping dragon who we put in the middle of the sleeping bag bed, also has cancer. One is a shock, but 2?
This isn’t a post about my friends getting cancer. I think that most of us can tell a story (or more) about someone far to young getting cancer and dying from it. Nor do I have any answers, really. But I don’t think that it is just bad luck or poor choices that is leading to the increasing rates of cancer in our society. If it was simply luck or choice, cancer would be evenly distributed across the world. However you can see on this map that cancer isn’t evenly distributed.
Clearly there is more at work here than simply lifestyle choices or bad luck. We eat foods saturated with chemicals to keep them from being eaten by bugs when they are growing, then more chemicals to keep them from going bad while sitting in storage and then still more chemicals to make them the color and flavor that we want them to be so that we can eat them and convince ourselves that we are eating fresh wholesome foods. We treat our water with chlorine, which causes
bladder cancer and then we carry it in bottles made of endocrine disrupting BPA. Even water can’t be trusted!
Then there is the approach to treating cancer. Radiation and chemotherapy are toxic with the side effects of causing cancer. No matter if they are shown to improve the outcomes for your particular cancer they are likely to be suggested. There are treatment approaches that work and have cured cancer that are ignored by the establishment and even fought against. Watch Burzynski the Movie to learn more about this.
There is then the fact that very little is actually said in our society about preventing any cancer but lifestyle ones that have easy fixes. (Sunscreen for Skin cancer, quitting smoking for Lung Cancer). We pay some lip service to eating fruits and vegetables but how many Dr’s will tell you which ones have the most antioxidants? Or that if they are processed and preserved many of those nutrients are much lower in them by the time you eat them. They might even be damaged and harmful!
What about getting your vitamin D levels monitored? Low vitamin D levels is associated with increased cancer rates. That is something easy to address if you only know. My Dr has tested it routinely for several years but I know that many Dr’s never check this unless they are asked Are you aware that the normal lab results simply represent 1 standard deviation from the mean of everyone who had had that test done by that lab? They aren’t established by looking at people who are known to be healthy and seeing what their values are. It is simply looking at everyone who elects to get a particular test done. If your result is within the range of most people getting that test done you are in range and therefore fine. Does this seem crazy to anyone else? This explains why different labs have different ranges for the same tests. They have different populations going to those labs.
I’ll end my rant before you think I have totally gone crazy. I believe in God and that he can work miracles. I also believe that he allows us to reap what we have sown and that good people suffer because of the bad choices of others and that God is still there when that happens. We continue to spread about more and more cancer causing chemicals and ingest them and inject them and slather them on our bodies and then we wonder why were are getting cancer and higher and higher rates. Or perhaps we don’t wonder and that scares me the most of all. Our eyes are closed to consequences of our actions and the results of our indulgence for more and better. We don’t want to spend more to get no-voc paint or organic foods. We would rather spend our money on cell phones and cable tv. Those choices don’t seem to really matter since putting that paint up on the walls won’t cause anyone to immediately get cancer but it ads to the toxic burden and over time the toxins add up and the camels back is broken and we say things like. “It was Gods will”. And “No one could have done more” and “Such a shame, he was so young.”
I am asking for prayers for my friend tonight as she struggles with all that this diagnosis means for her and her family and the choices she must make over the next few days and weeks. The camels back is broken for her. It is too late to go back and remove some toxins from her life and prevent cancer. Now is the time to make choices going forward. No matter where you stand looking at your life know that cancer is a real possibility in this toxic soup we live in, but you do have some choices to make to prevent it for yourself and your family and for others as well. I pray that you will have wisdom and strength to make those choices.
That was a powerful message! I am on the "organic band-wagon", but get discouraged at times when my friends and loved ones make fun of the choices I am making. Thank you for spreading the word about the toxic world we live in. My prayers go out to your friend!
You stay on that band-wagon!!! And don’t look back!!! Know that there are others out there living a cleaner and greener life along with you!!! Stay strong.
My MIL was very recently diagnosed w/ breast cancer. She's experiencing some depression since she found out. She feels betrayed by her body. The last year and a half she's been on a weightloss diet, and has tried to get on the tredmill a few times a week. The weightloss diet is low fat and low carb (basically starvation), and although they can afford it, they don't eat organic at all. Before the last year and a half, she didn't do anything to support her health. Lots and lots of junk for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Anyway, I feel so bad for her, but the whole thing is so frustrating to me. Now she believes diet has nothing to do with cancer because her weightloss diet of 1 1/2 years didn't prevent it. And it's frustrating that all the doctors will tell you is that it doesn't have much effect, so she believes them. And I'm a nobody (not a doctor or anything), so why should anyone listen to me? I hope your friend is okay.
I'm wondering if you could do a comprehensive post on which lab tests you like to have done. I want to do some for us, but will be choosy, as we pretty much pay for everything out of pocket. Thanks!
i actually really hate this. Also, we live in central nh, probably right below the deep red line…. my knowledge or healthy eating has recently started growing, and doesn’t spread to my very unhealthy family… guess it’s time to pray more than worry, and gently prod…..
I’d be curious to know WHY the red zone is so red…
Well, it’s just white males and it’s lung, trachea and Bronchus and Pieura so one would assume smoking would be the biggest factor here. I didn’t read the article though.
Thanks for this article. The graphic presentation of the rates of cancer raises myriad questions. It can’t JUST be fried foods! Also, your point - in the paragraph concerning Vitamin D - about the “healthy ranges” being based on lab tests is very interesting. I’d never thought of that. Thanks for helping the rest of us raise our awareness!
I always say that I hate cancer so much I will fight it before I get it.
Poignantly put. There are so many things broken in our society. The mass production food system. The medical profession masking everything with toxic drugs and making matters worse. Shameless pollution of water and air by companies producing products we have convinced ourselves we can’t live without (but in reality could quite easily make ourselves), our hapless faith that the government would never allow an un-safe product to be sold. It’s just too big a mental leap for most to make any changes. Only a few of the sickest, the most desperate, who have had no results from conventional medicine come to the point in their journey where they are willing to acknowledge the inconvenient truth and affect the necessary changes. I was there 4 years ago. I am so thankful for the rare medical doctor who by her one comment, sent me down the path on our journey to health!
It is red because it is in farming country. They use toxic chemicals now for everything.
Can’t really read it. It is too small.